Mandolin
by Burbank
Summary: Zelda and Samus meet for the first time and enjoy a bit of music together.


I'm sorry if this fic seems to not really have a point. This is the first thing I've written in a few years, so I'm just trying to get back into the swing of things. I'm attempting a series of 100 fics that have a one word prompt. This one's was beginnings. It'll probably have one or two more parts to it.

"Sturm up, then down, up, down... no, no. This isn't right." A frustrated Princess Zelda sat in the lounge area of the Stadium. She had been given a mandolin as a gift for her birthday 3 weeks prior, and it had been what she'd been focusing on ever since. She had declared that she would learn it by the time all of the combatants moved into the living quarters; so far, the only ones who had shown were her, Link, a few odd creatures called Pokemon and their trainer, and a quiet woman named Samus. She didn't want anyone hearing her sad attempted at learning it, just the finished and polished product.

Zelda aimed for perfection in all things, if she was going to do it, she was going to do it right. She'd never delved into the world of music before though. So many notes, so many ways to get them wrong; misplace your finger here, loosen the string too much there, and you had a recipe for disaster instead of the melody she so strongly desired to play.

What she had learned to play right off the bat was the simple lullaby her mother had sung for her when she was young. That is what she would play whenever she frustrated herself enough to want to give up to remind herself not only that she had at least perfected something within the time that she'd been practicing but also to calm down!

"Sshh... It's okay." She told herself with a sigh as she stood up from the hard wooden bench that she'd been sitting on for posture. She decided to move over to the plush recliner in the corner that could almost swallow her up if she let it. Such comfort wasn't even found in the royal chambers of her castle! With legs crossed, she propped up her mandolin and began to play the lullaby.

Just as she had zoned out, completely focusing on the melody, a similarly frustrated Samus Aran stalked into the room. She was bitter over a failed repair that she was attempting to make on her blaster. It had gotten cracked in her last mission and had been shooting crooked, even after she'd repaired the crack. She hadn't been expecting to see anyone, let alone the Princess playing some tiny guitar in the lounge, after all, so few people had shown up thus far; she hadn't even seen the Pokemon and their trainer yet!

"Oh, hi." Samus forced the words out quickly. She'd caught herself staring at Zelda for much longer than was socially accepted; luckily, Zelda didn't notice. Her eyes were closed and she was in a completely different place mentally. Samus tilted her head, normally she was the one ignoring people.

'Ah, well.' She thought. 'I didn't take a break from repairs for socialization anyway...' She stuck her hand in her pocket and searched for the quarters that she'd brought along with her to pay for a drink. Once she retrieved a bottle of water from the machine, she sat down on the couch that was directly across from the chair that Zelda was in.

A content Zelda swayed in the chair, not noticing that she wasn't the only was enjoying her song. Samus wondered if the princess always acted this odd but enjoyed the music nonetheless, it had been a long, long time since she'd heard such a simple tune played with such grace.

"Beautiful..." Samus mumbled, she'd been swept up with the melody just as Zelda had. The both of them swayed back and forth unknowingly, and once Zelda ran out of notes to play, they almost felt lost without the song.

The princess opened her eyes, and to her surprise, Samus was sitting directly across from her. "Oh!" She exclaimed, "How long have you been there?" This startled Samus and she reacted with a small yelp.

"I.. Not long.. I just..."

Zelda chuckled, "I'm sorry, I did not mean to frighten you. Did you need something?"

"No, I was listening to you play, you're really great at it." Samus nodded with a smile. "I'm Samus Aran, by the way."

Zelda blushed, she hadn't played for anyone yet and certainly didn't expect to receive such a nice compliment. "Thank you. I'm Zelda, Princess of Hyrule. You probably know my friend Link, he's been here for competitions before... In fact, I believe I remember him speaking about you, he constantly praises your proficiency in combat."

Samus wasn't paying much attention to the princess's introduction. She was caught by the elf's eyes. It was rare to see such a color anywhere in the galaxy, and to stumble upon them at the arena of all places took her by complete surprise. She caught Zelda at the rear of her introduction, somewhere around where she asked to see her blaster because she'd never heard of anything like it.

"My blaster... Oh damn. I forgot about why I came out here in the first place." Samus jokingly smacked herself in the head. "I was supposed to get a drink and go back to fixing it." Samus had yet to even open the water bottle, which had taken to sweating all over her pants. She groaned when she noticed her newly wet jeans. "I got distracted by your song. It was really beautiful, where did you learn it?" She asked while twisting open the water bottle. She took a swig and extended the open bottle to Zelda, "Thirsty?"

"No thank you." Zelda smiled, "My mother used to sing it to me when I was younger. It was a lullaby of sorts. I just started to learn the mandolin, it was a present from my advisor, he'd always known..." Zelda noticed a bit of water run down from Samus' lips as she took another drink of the water and without putting much thought to it, wiped it away with her thumb. "He'd always known that I loved music and had wanted to learn, so he had this commissioned for me. It's been quite fun to learn!"

Samus hadn't caught much of the explanation since Zelda had wiped the water from her face. She hadn't expected it and certainly wasn't accustomed to such soft fingers on her face. Her own fingers were calloused and rough from years of bounty hunting and time spent in her suit.

"And when he heard me play at first, why, I couldn't help running to my room in shame. It was awful, can you believe... Samus? Are you alright?" Zelda halted her chatter, she saw that Samus was acting oddly, she'd been running her fingers over her own hands for some time while staring at them. "Is something wrong with your hand?"

"Can I see your's for a moment?"

"My hand?" Zelda asked, she put her hand out to Samus slowly.

"Yeah. It's so soft, you know you'll get callouses from playing the guitar, right?" Samus took Zelda's hand in her own. She ran her index finger over Zelda's finger tips to see if they'd already been calloused.

"I believe they've already gotten started in forming." Zelda sighed, "I have always put such work into keeping them soft, too."

"You know, they make laser guitars where I'm from, they strings are light so you don't get callouses. I could go pick one up for you. I have to go get my blaster repaired anyway."

"No, I couldn't ask you to..."

"I insist! That's a mandolin, right?" Samus asked as she stood up. "I can't let such a you ruin your hands, they're too perfect." She instantly felt a little stupid, she was sure that she princess would think she was being strange by being so forward. She didn't give Zelda the chance to say no to her proposition... or ask her why she was so preoccupied with Zelda's hands. "I'll be back in a few hours!" She said before dashing for the ship bay.

"Well... it was nice meeting you, Samus."

Thanks for reading! I appreciate any and all criticism!


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